[gloriousduke]

Similar to the idea that the downsides of globalism intermixed with potent capitalism, say ecological damage, will be outweighed by the sorts of technologically imbued powers that will take our civilization far beyond Earth.

[anigbrowl]

That's a religious position as long as you only focus on the benefits and don't account for the costs. And I say that as someone absolutely committed to that future.

[maxharris]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkpqA8yG9T4

Also, I think that LaRouche nutters notwithstanding, the idea of putting these extremely hot plasmas to use to recycle materials in the coming fusion economy is going to solve most of the current problems of waste and materials. Even seemingly intractable problems such as what to do with nuclear waste get easier if you can separate the bulk of the non-radioactive material from the truly hot stuff. And indeed you can do that - 100 million degrees just strips the electrons right off, leaving charged particles that are easily sorted into neat, sorted pure piles of whatever elements were in your waste to begin with.

[maxharris]

I haven't heard that before, but it certainly does appear that Elon Musk will take us to Mars. So maybe there is something to that after all.